Multi-sensory Fusion and Understanding in Robotic Assistive Technology Environments. The research will yield improved international standing through scientific advances disseminated through high impact refereed publications and open source software. The synergy between Language Technology and Robotics will attract post-graduate students in these areas, and potentially commercialisation interest. The demonstration prototype will provide proof of concept of an application that improves the capabil ....Multi-sensory Fusion and Understanding in Robotic Assistive Technology Environments. The research will yield improved international standing through scientific advances disseminated through high impact refereed publications and open source software. The synergy between Language Technology and Robotics will attract post-graduate students in these areas, and potentially commercialisation interest. The demonstration prototype will provide proof of concept of an application that improves the capabilities of human-centric environments, especially for people with limited mobility or cognitive function. The deployment of this research will extend the independence of such people beyond the time when they may otherwise need to be institutionalized, which will benefit both them and the remainder of society.Read moreRead less
Complex Decision Making in Intelligent Agent Systems. This project will bring benefit in that it will increase the ability of autonomous computer systems to make complex decisions in dynamic environments. As the use of intelligent autonomous technology is increasing, from smart air-traffic control systems to personal digital assistants to internet software agents, there is also increased demand for more sophisticated reasoning. This is showing in a range of applications such as autonomous vehicl ....Complex Decision Making in Intelligent Agent Systems. This project will bring benefit in that it will increase the ability of autonomous computer systems to make complex decisions in dynamic environments. As the use of intelligent autonomous technology is increasing, from smart air-traffic control systems to personal digital assistants to internet software agents, there is also increased demand for more sophisticated reasoning. This is showing in a range of applications such as autonomous vehicles and equipment, scheduling and resourcing, and business processing. This project will contribute to provide such capabilities to existing technology. It will also assist the Australian Partner Organisation to stay at the forefront internationally in this fast moving area.Read moreRead less
Robotic Inspection and Safe Removals of Suspicious/Abandoned Luggage. Abandoned luggage 'discovered' at airports and other sites by iOmniscient's video surveillance system maycontain explosive, dangerous chemicals or lethal biological agents. This project is about using sensor equipped robots to inspect this luggage by x-ray and other means (e.g.: ultrasound or electromagnetic sensors) and then, if appropriate, to remove it to a safe disposal area so as to minimise the risk to others sharing th ....Robotic Inspection and Safe Removals of Suspicious/Abandoned Luggage. Abandoned luggage 'discovered' at airports and other sites by iOmniscient's video surveillance system maycontain explosive, dangerous chemicals or lethal biological agents. This project is about using sensor equipped robots to inspect this luggage by x-ray and other means (e.g.: ultrasound or electromagnetic sensors) and then, if appropriate, to remove it to a safe disposal area so as to minimise the risk to others sharing this public space and those personnel responsible for security operations. iOmniscient Pty.Ltd., as the industrial partner, clearly has a commercial interest in the success of this project and thus is strongly motivated to support it.Read moreRead less
Robotic Vehicles for Fire Fighting and Emergency Services Support. The use of robots to support humans in bushfire fighting, search and rescue missions, civil disaster operations and terrorist apprehension (including hostage rescue) can save lives, minimise injury and improve security. This project aims at providing such capabilities and to deploy them in modes from direct teleoperation to fully autonomous operation as the situation dictates, in full partnership with the Victorian Country Fire A ....Robotic Vehicles for Fire Fighting and Emergency Services Support. The use of robots to support humans in bushfire fighting, search and rescue missions, civil disaster operations and terrorist apprehension (including hostage rescue) can save lives, minimise injury and improve security. This project aims at providing such capabilities and to deploy them in modes from direct teleoperation to fully autonomous operation as the situation dictates, in full partnership with the Victorian Country Fire Authority.Read moreRead less
Autonomous service robots in a multi-agent based system for household and industrial environments. This project addresses fundamental research issues required to develop autonomous mobile robots for intelligent cleaning services. As an interdisciplinary project spanning the fields of robotics, mechatronics and AI, it offers potential benefits in bringing robots into less-structured human environments. Robots performing autonomous cleaning (including hazardous waste and spillage) and security tas ....Autonomous service robots in a multi-agent based system for household and industrial environments. This project addresses fundamental research issues required to develop autonomous mobile robots for intelligent cleaning services. As an interdisciplinary project spanning the fields of robotics, mechatronics and AI, it offers potential benefits in bringing robots into less-structured human environments. Robots performing autonomous cleaning (including hazardous waste and spillage) and security tasks in both household and industrial environments has tremendous national/community benefits in cost and time savings, improved efficiency and safety, and facilitating hazardous or labour intensive tasks. Other benefits include research training, strengthening Australia's R&D position in key innovative technologies, and creating jobs and exports.Read moreRead less
Advanced Sonar Sensing for Robotics. Robotics research is heavily dependent on fast, accurate, reliable and cheap sensors. Sonar sensing can fulfil these requirements in air and underwater environments. This project will advance this sensor technology by providing sonar with high-speed accurate measurement and classification capabilities that function on moving platforms. The sonar will adapt and monitor differing environmental conditions allowing the sensor data to be integrated better with ....Advanced Sonar Sensing for Robotics. Robotics research is heavily dependent on fast, accurate, reliable and cheap sensors. Sonar sensing can fulfil these requirements in air and underwater environments. This project will advance this sensor technology by providing sonar with high-speed accurate measurement and classification capabilities that function on moving platforms. The sonar will adapt and monitor differing environmental conditions allowing the sensor data to be integrated better with other sensors, such as laser and stereo vision. Interference rejection will be incorporated that will allow the sensor to operate in conjunction with other sonar. Applications of the technology will be robotic mapping, localisation, navigation and exploration.Read moreRead less
Manoeuvrable burrowing robots for underground search. It is very difficult to locate items that have been buried underground or to find out their condition without digging them up. There are a number of situations involving leaking underground chemical storage tanks, and pipelines together with improperly disposed of chemical containers where chemical leaks can pose dangers to the environment and human health. This project aims to develop a robotic system that can burrow through the ground and h ....Manoeuvrable burrowing robots for underground search. It is very difficult to locate items that have been buried underground or to find out their condition without digging them up. There are a number of situations involving leaking underground chemical storage tanks, and pipelines together with improperly disposed of chemical containers where chemical leaks can pose dangers to the environment and human health. This project aims to develop a robotic system that can burrow through the ground and home in on sources of leaking chemicals. Such a system could pinpoint the sources of leaks without requiring extensive excavations.Read moreRead less
Visual Tracking: Geometric Fitting and Filtering. One of the most elementary things that people and sighted animals do is to follow moving objects with their eyes. Movement is a cue to the importance and relevance of objects in a scene. Visually tracking objects allows the determination of important characteristics - distance to the object, shape of the object, likely behaviour of the object etc. Though systems have been built that can perform visual tracking: accuracy and reliability must be i ....Visual Tracking: Geometric Fitting and Filtering. One of the most elementary things that people and sighted animals do is to follow moving objects with their eyes. Movement is a cue to the importance and relevance of objects in a scene. Visually tracking objects allows the determination of important characteristics - distance to the object, shape of the object, likely behaviour of the object etc. Though systems have been built that can perform visual tracking: accuracy and reliability must be improved though a better understanding of the underlying processes. Applications include visual inspection (industrial automation), surveillance (civil and military), robot vision for scene understanding and navigation, multimedia production (automatic human motion capture for example), and human computer interfaces.
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Gain modulation and stability in biological neural systems. This project is relevant to the National Research Priority area of Frontier Technologies and addresses fundamental cross-disciplinary issues of control and information processing in large, distributed neural systems that are at the cutting edge of intelligent processing systems. Applications are in rapidly growing fields of robotics, machine learning, adaptive control and intelligent systems, all with applications in diverse areas of ec ....Gain modulation and stability in biological neural systems. This project is relevant to the National Research Priority area of Frontier Technologies and addresses fundamental cross-disciplinary issues of control and information processing in large, distributed neural systems that are at the cutting edge of intelligent processing systems. Applications are in rapidly growing fields of robotics, machine learning, adaptive control and intelligent systems, all with applications in diverse areas of economic importance. Applications to cochlear implant speech processing will provide benefit for the hearing impaired. The project will provide students with training at an international level within Australia, thus helping ensure Australia maintains and extends its science and technology base into the futureRead moreRead less
ARC Centre for Perceptive & Intelligent Machines in Complex Environments. The Centre for Perceptive and Intelligent Machines in Complex Environments will perform fundamental research into and construct reliable large-scale systems of networked sensors, computational intelligence, mobile robots, and knowledge sources to support a large variety of critical human tasks, including surveillance/ security (eg. borders/airports/homes), health care support (eg. smart houses/ health condition monitoring, ....ARC Centre for Perceptive & Intelligent Machines in Complex Environments. The Centre for Perceptive and Intelligent Machines in Complex Environments will perform fundamental research into and construct reliable large-scale systems of networked sensors, computational intelligence, mobile robots, and knowledge sources to support a large variety of critical human tasks, including surveillance/ security (eg. borders/airports/homes), health care support (eg. smart houses/ health condition monitoring, semi autonomous wheelchairs), and civil disaster support (eg. fighting bushfires, looking for people in rubble) always keeping people in the loop so that strong human/ machine cooperative ventures can achieve what neither human or machines could accomplish independently.Read moreRead less